


Spaces Between

by Leonawriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (or at least I tried), Canon Compliant, Gen, M/M, Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship, Slow Burn, Team as Family, actually probably just a lot of subconscious pining, romance-lite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-15
Updated: 2017-08-15
Packaged: 2018-12-13 16:53:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11764266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: A series of missing scenes from S1 and S2 from Keith’s point of view, not always featuring Lance, but often with Lance butting his head in regardless.





	Spaces Between

It's a squeeze, fitting everyone into the shack in the desert that'd been plenty big enough for just one person in all this time - but nowhere near as hard to handle as having so many people on his  _bike_ , and being the one in charge of driving it. 

Neither of these things would have happened if Lance, who swears they had some sort of rivalry or close relationship or  _something_  in the past at the Garrison, hadn't hijacked his rescue of Shiro. 

Thankfully there's a cot in the side room that they've - and, yet again, it was  _they_ , with Lance not letting go of the idea that the rescue was half him, too - put Shiro onto so that he could sleep off the tranquillisers the Garrison doctors gave him. That and the tiny kitchen that only really consisted of a small stove and a couple of cupboards were all the place was good for, considering the attic was full of junk he didn't know how to use.

Keith quietly slips outside. There are too many people, and they're too loud, to boot. Lance relaying yet again just how  _cool_ he'd been and how nothing would have happened if it weren't for  _him_ one more time was, even though he and the others were trying to be quiet in case they woke Shiro up, just too much.

He closes his eyes once outside, feeling the a cold wind on his face that was usually burningly hot in the daytime, and felt the pull of  _something_ tug at him once again, more urgently than before, and sighs.

...

Waiting, he'd long since decided - way back, in fact, back when Shiro was gone and they weren't saying anything, and nothing was adding up, and even back further before  _that_ \- wasn't Keith's strong suit.

Nevertheless, that was all he could do. For now.

At least this time he had company, even if one of them was busy and couldn't be distracted, and the other was  _also_ busy making sure the castle's systems were going back online properly.

It was a choice between pondering all the various things that could go wrong - ranging from 'they take too long and Allura has to shut the wormholes without them', which meant he lost Shiro  _again_ , not even hours after finding him again, not to mention the others who he didn't really know but also didn't want to lose  _either_ , all the way up to 'they find their Lions, but there's a Galra presence and they end up losing the Lions to the Galra anyway' - or listening to Coran mutter and mumble almost unintelligible things while he works, sometimes even aimed at him on purpose.

He prefers listening to Coran ramble on.

The irony didn't escape him, given how he'd found Lance too noisy not too long ago.

...

He's left waiting  _again_ a few days later.

This time, he doesn't even bother holding himself back from pacing out of frustration. 

 _This is my fault_ , he thinks sometimes, which is stupid. But knowing that doesn't stop him from thinking he should have somehow known something or been able to spot something before. They'd all just been having fun, and they'd just been  _played_. Taken advantage of, completely.

And to top it all off, Lance was in there injured and with god knows what kind of injuries under that armour, and so was  _Shiro_. 

Shiro, trapped in the castle with the Galra, who'd done this to him in the first place, who'd  _taken_ him from them.

Keith's hand twitches at his bayard again, not for the first time.

_Come on, Hunk. Hurry up!_

Of course Hunk wouldn't be back for at least another hour - or so, or  _few_  - but he couldn't help wishing they could be back quicker. That the castle's particle barrier could be taken down quicker. That he could know that Shiro was safe and Lance was being treated and he was going to be  _fine-_

If there was one thing Keith  _hated_ , more than anything, it was uncertainty, and this situation was  _full_ of it.

...

"Lance...?"

Hunk had called a while ago to say that he and Coran were on their way with a new crystal. The pods would be up and running again in no time once they were back, so it was just a matter of waiting that long. Or so Allura said, at least. She was insistent that the pods didn't just cryogenically freeze people for anywhere up to and over ten thousand years, but  _heal_ them, too.

"...huh?"

He tried not to show his relief. Lance's eyes kept drooping, which wasn't a good sign. His head must've been hit just as badly as the rest of him in that blast, and the  _last_ thing they wanted was for him to drift off.

"C'mon, you've gotta stay awake. You said we made a good team back there, right?"

Lance blinks, and it's disorienting how  _slow_ he's being. Lance is supposed to move around so quickly and loudly he practically gives Keith  _headaches_ sometimes, even when he isn't even trying to. Lance like this is just... wrong.

"Huh-? Oh... yeah. All of us. E'en you."

 _Wow, he really is out of it_. Although, considering his last compliment had been along the lines of "I don't hate you right now!", a somewhat slurred "Even you" was something he could work with.

"Ha, yeah- no, keep your eyes open.  _Stay with me._ Hunk's on his way with that crystal. Just... stay with me until then."

Lance's strength seemed to fail him, though, his upper body sliding so that he'd have hit the floor again if Keith hadn't caught him in time.

"S'rry." 

 _He's getting worse_ circled around in his head, but he stubbornly ignored anything that said  _Hunk's not going to get here in time_ or  _the pods aren't going to be able to help him because he's human_ or  _they'll take too long to get back online_  or  _they're broken anyway._

"Don't be stupid. But I'm gonna remember this, you know."

...

A while later, and all the waiting he's doing is that he's waiting to go to sleep. Which is hard enough in a and of itself, because he's still getting adjusted to the castleship's ambient temperatures being so different from the desert.

It's made harder by the fact that his mind keeps running back across the fact that just earlier that day, the entire ship had been overrun by some kind of Galra virus, making everything want them  _dead_. The training drones, the airlock, the cryopods, and according to Hunk and Pidge, even the food machines.

It's almost enough to make him wonder if all the influence really  _did_ go along with King Alfor's AI, and if not, then if there was anything in this room that might end up a danger.

He remembers the way one of the kids he'd fostered with at one point had practically cocooned herself in her duvet each night, and he's glad he doesn't do  _that_ , or there wouldn't be a  _need_ for a malicious AI.

He's just about dropping off, thoughts heading in a more harmless direction, when he hears a cut off cry from the room right next to his quickly followed by a sharp  _thud_.

His heart is in his mouth and he's halfway out of bed before hearing Lance - because of course that's who it is - start to swear just loudly enough to make it obvious that he's not actually in any trouble.

Keith sighs, unsure whether to be annoyed at the disturbance to his sleep or relieved that there's nothing really wrong. He wonders briefly, before putting his head back on his pillow, if Lance had been having nightmares, and whether he say something - but the next time he sees the Blue Paladin, there isn't a hair out of place, his skin is flawless, and he sure isn't  _acting_ like there's nothing wrong.

(Unless he's acting. Keith's still not one hundred percent fully sure if Lance is lying about not remembering that moment between them when he cradled Lance's body. Either way, neither of them bring it up, even if Keith does stare enough that the others start to notice.)

...

He couldn't say anything.

More than once, he'd  _considered_ bringing things up to the others - asking Coran how a Galran would actually fight, and if anyone had any right to say that  _he_ fought like one. Thought of dropping the fact that Shiro wanted him to take over if- and  _if_ \- anything happened, just in passing.

But he couldn't. 

They'd ask questions, it'd get brought up again, they'd do  _research_ , and he wasn't sure he was ready for that. For any of that.

 _You fight like a Galra._  He could still hear Zarkon saying the words to him every so often, enough that sometimes he's caught himself wondering what it was while training against the gladiator. Analysing his own moves.

That, though, in many ways it's something he can work out on his own. He'll either figure out the answers sooner or later, or they'll come to him. He has a vague feeling that they will whether he wants them to or not.

For what Shiro said, though...

He doesn't want to be set apart like that. He  _likes_ where he is in the team - he likes Red, he likes being Shiro's right hand, and he actually _likes_  Lance riling him into things the way he's pretty sure he wouldn't get if he were the 'leader'.

He sighs in the silence of his room, back flush against his propped up pillow and knees against his chest, and hoped that he was just worrying over nothing, but couldn't ignore the press of his knife against the small of his back, reminding him of even  _more_ unanswered questions.

...

When he wakes up, ready to come out of the cryopod, the first thing he sees is everyone waiting for him. Everyone's  _there_ , at least, and most of them even look happy to see he's awake.

But there's  _curiosity_ in the way they're looking at him now, too. And Allura's all the way over there, and Coran's at her side instead of with the others.

"Hey, man," Lance says as Keith leans on Shiro while his legs adjust to standing properly again. "Uh, just... forget what I said earlier, okay? It's good to have you back."

Keith blinks a couple or so times while trying to figure out what Lance is referring to, and then just shrugs, not really feeling up to looking him in the eye.

_"See? I told you he'd be all hot-headed and get in trouble! But did anyone listen to Lance? No, of course you didn't, and then what do we get, we get Red attacking the base and worrying us all to death!"_

Which hadn't been long before he'd explained, bluntly, what had happened. Admittedly less with the details and more like  _apparently my knife is one of their blades, and I 'awoke' it because I have their blood. I mean, I have Galra blood._ But that had been enough. 

In the present, Pidge looks relieved but doesn't stick around long. Allura's vanished the next time he remembers to look. Hunk looks anxious, and keeps making half finished spoken thoughts until deciding to go chase after Pidge.

He sighs, his body remembering how when he'd gone into the pod, he'd had trouble breathing deeply due to a few bruised ribs, and knows it isn't phantom now-healed pains that made his chest hurt now.

He'd been through this before. Unlike so many other things they've had to deal with, it's not as though it's something  _new_ to him.

Just... doesn't mean it hurts less.

"I'm gonna go bug Hunk for something other than food goo," Lance says, from much further away than before. Keith doesn't bother looking up. "Oh, and Shiro? I've  _so_ got permission to get Pidge to hack his door open if he tries locking himself in, right?"

Shiro laughs, and tells Lance to try knocking and asking first.

...

If he's honest, a lot of what he's known about his knife up until now has been self-taught. If he went to most adults and asked where they thought it might have come from or how to look after it or, god forbid he ask how to  _use_ it, they'd worry he was turning antisocial and start... pretending to be gentle and friendly, so that when he wasn't looking, they'd take it  _away_.

_Give up the blade, and the pain will stop-_

His time in the desert had helped him hone  _some_ skills. He'd marvelled at how it didn't blunt like a normal knife, kitchen or craft, not knowing why but not caring as long as it meant that using it for normal, everyday things wasn't going to damage it. 

Getting out into space, thrust into a war he'd only had vague ideas might be out there because of the energy readings he'd picked up and the carvings on the walls of the cave they'd found Blue in, had made it easier. The training room was literally  _built_ for practicing how to fight, and when he needed an opponent, he could either use one of the gladiators or ask (rile up, in Lance's case) someone to be a sparring partner.

This wasn't any of those times. This time, he'd come in when it was quiet. 

He held his knife - his  _Galran_ blade, a  _Marmoran_ blade - out in front of him. It still looked oddly naked every time he saw it without the wrappings he'd used to cover up the odd symbol that had always glowed on its hilt, ever since he could remember. He'd only taken them off to clean it, before now.

What had he felt, when he'd 'awoken' it? Was it something he'd said, or done - an emotion, a thought? He hadn't really been  _thinking_ , though. In the end, he'd just wanted to go  _home_. Not to the shack in the desert or to people who might've loved him or might not have but who'd never  _been there_ , but to the castle, to the other Paladins, to Allura and Coran and the Lions and  _Voltron_.

 _I know who I am_ , is what he'd said, and he remembered how the knife had changed as he'd held it out.

 _That's it_.  _That's how it goes_.

It felt different, wearing his Paladin armour instead of the trial suit they'd made him wear, not to mention the sheer lack of aches and pains from having been fighting through room after room of Blade members all trained to the same degree that Ulaz had been. He swings it once, twice, just to get the feel of it, and then starts falling into the forms he's practiced so many times first with Shiro and then on his own that they've almost become reflex.

"Stop."

The voice rings out clearly through the otherwise empty room, but when Keith turns sharply to see who or what it was, he sees Kolivan walking toward him.

"You continue to grip the blade as though it is still a knife, with the same amount of reach. Here," Kolivan reached out, and changed the way his hand curled around the hilt. "This is more like it."

"Er, thanks." The new grip was different to the one he'd always used, and  _way_ different from the one he used for his bayard. "Uh... do most people have this problem when they've awoken their blades, or...?"

"No. However, most do not live with their unawakened blade for as long as you, either."

"Right." Of course they hadn't. "Anything else?"

"Your stance needs adjusting. With your bayard, you move the weapon with your entire arm, but with your blade, there is room for more fluidity of movement. You need to allow for that."

He's barely starting to get the hang of it when a blue-helmeted head pokes its way into the training room, the face inside looking both bored and annoyed.

"So.... are you two going to take much longer or are you done yet? Because other people need to train too, you know. Like me. If we're going off on missions again soon then I want to be in top form. No offence Keith, but watching you dance around doesn't help me do that."

"You... could just try doing target practice on the other side of the room? It's not like this place is lacking in space, Lance."

"No. No no no. Absolutely not. I can't focus on shooting if  _other people_ are around!"

"Other people? You focus well enough in battle - I don't see what your _problem_ is."

Keith sighed, but folded, letting his blade revert back to the knife form he'd always known it as before, and muttered a low "Thanks, and, uh, sorry about that" to Kolivan as he left.

He probably wouldn't have been able to focus properly on his own training with Lance in there shooting targets anyway. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'd originally started this with the thought of doing a couple set within S3, but got to more or less the end of S2 and started running out of steam. So I figure, I'll put this up and if I remember/get inspired for those S3 ones again, I'll add those in with another chapter.
> 
> Fun fact: what didn't fit in the actual fic itself is that Lance mentions heading off the idea of Keith shutting himself off by locking his room's door because I figured he's probably had a bit of experience with older siblings doing something similar at bad news (even if unlike Keith here, it's something as mundane as being dumped).
> 
> I've made mention elsewhere of how I'm considering doing more once S4 comes out, too. So there is that as well.


End file.
